Hires. My Favorite thing to Collect

This blog post is dedicated to Hires Root Beer.  I wish someone would bring it back into production.

I have a lot of Hires items, because there are a lot out there to find. Since they were really the first national brand, and have been around for a long time, you can generally find some Hires items in most locations.  Here is what I have,  Enjoy the collection.  This will be a long one so settle in for a few minutes.

1948 Six Pack

The 2nd and 3rd from left are Hires mailing containers

Notice the 3cent stamp

10 oz bottles

12oz bottles

10oz bottles

12oz bottles

Large 24oz and 16oz bottles

Very old bottles

Hires in raised glass

Extract Bottle

Syrup Can

Marketing book with a sales plan

This bag contained over 100 unused bottle caps

HO scale train car

Tall crate

Short crate

1948 six pack carrier

Metal Advertising signs are very hard to find. They are getting expensive as well.

This one is cardboard

This is a card that fit into a 6 pack

Metal sign

Metal pin

Mirror

Ruler

Food Bag

Clock. Has a neon light in it that is always on when it is plugged in.

Repro Marble.  Not an original Hires item.

These are the only 3 trays I have ever seen.

Root Beer Mug Display

I found a couple matching cabinets at the Front Range Mercantile Fleamarket that I thought would be perfect for storing and displaying my Root Beer Mugs. The right hand cabinet contains almost all A&W mugs. The left hand cabinet contains a variety of other brands.

Now I wish I could find a couple more just like these.

The mugs to the back of the above picture are all Buckeye. The far right mug is much harder to find and says Buckeye Pure on the bottom. I have also seen a matching pitcher but they wanted $200 for it and that seemed a bit high.  Since I have not seen another one it might have been a good deal.

8 new Root Beers!

When I got home from my mission at the employment center today I had a package sitting on my front porch.

This was a much anticipated package. A while back I had ordered some new brands of root beer from The Root Beer Store in Lynnwood Washington.  Unfortunately their first shipment was returned before it was delivered because of the deep freeze we had. One of the bottles had broke and Fedex sent it back instead of delivering it. The store called me immediately and apologized and sent out a new shipment.

The packing of these bottles is really good, so had we not had temperatures well below zero it would have made it just fine. It is a little more expensive to order root beer this way, due to the shipping charges, but it is still a lot cheaper than driving from Colorado to Washington to buy some root beer you cannot get locally.

Now for the next week I get to try some great new brands.

Chicago Fountain Classic - with pure cane sugar

Druthers Black Cow Vanilla Cream Root Beer

Stevens Point Premium Root Beer - Cane Sugar and Wisconsin Honey

Foxon Park Draft Style Root Beer

III Dachshunds Root Beer - Pure Cane Sugar

HIPPO SIZE Jumbo Root Beer - Cane Sugar with extract of wintergreen

I am anxious to taste them all but will do the Black Cow first.

These two new brands were found at the new candy store that opened up in Longmont. Both are very good.

Empire Root Beer - with Artesian Spring water and pure cane sugar

Barrel Brothers Root Beer - with Quillaja extract

Exciting times!

Odd Ball Items

One of the fun things about collecting Root Beer advertising items is when you come across some of the odd items.  Here are some of the items I have recently found.

First up we have matchbooks covers.  I have no idea why you would use a matchbook to advertise root beer, but I guess so many people smoked back in the pre-50s that it was an effective way to get your brand in front of them.

I have found two wooden nickles that are for root beer.  These are not so easy to find. You really have to look at all of the detailed items when you go through a flea-market

or antique mall.

Here are a couple small stickers I found on eBay. They are not real brands but a knock off of existing brands. Obviously Hires and MUG.

This is a way cool item.  It is one of these 3D reflector pins. As you move it back and forth you see Dennis drinking his root beer. This was found in a freeway flea market in Kansas.

Many of the root beer brands made functional items like thermometers. Here is a Hires one I found in Grand Island Nebraska.

This is a bag that held around 100 new bottle caps.  I assume this is how they were shipped to the bottling company for use when bottling Hires Root Beer

This is a sandwich wrapper. I am not sure what came in it.

Here are some cool A&W straws for kids. I found these in a flea-market in Cheyenne Wyoming.

Lots of companies made bottle toppers.  They would stick them on one of the bottles in a six pack to draw people attention while they walked by.

I love these cones and little root beer items.  The cones were typically found at sports events.  You drank the root beer and then removed both ends and used it as a megaphone.

Multi-Soda Companies

Multi-Soda Companies

This blog shows a few of the multi-soda companies I have root beer from.  Since these companies made several varieties of soda in the same bottle, you have to find one with the bottle cap still in place to know it is root beer. So far I have found 5 of them.

Pleasure Time

Duffy's

Goody

Nesbitt

Nehi

I have no idea how many more brands did root beer in the same bottle style as other sodas. I love when I find one as it is fairly unique and adds another brand to my list. If you are aware of other brands, be sure to send me an email so I know what to start looking for.

Thanks for looking.  tom@floodeen.com

Root Beer Extract

Root Beer Extract

There was a time that in order to get root beer, you needed to buy extract and make your own.  I have done thisand am glad you can buy good root beer in a store.  Here are some of the root beer extract bottles I have been able to fine.  Generally they cost about $10.00 when you see them.  They are getting harder to find.

This is K.D. extract from Baltimore MD. The bottle has a cork in it but has no marking that would indicate the manufacture. Since the bottle came int he box, I am only assuming it is the correct bottle. It does have a raised Diamond on the bottom of the bottle.

This is a more recent Hires extract bottle. The bottle has a HIRES logo in pressed glass at the top.  I have three of these bottles. One of them has a bottle cap with the HIRES logo on it as well.

Thomsom & Taylor. The box is in very bad shape.The bottle say Thomson and Taylor on one side, SHAKE THOROUGHLY on one side, EXTRACT FOR MAKING ROOT BEER, on another side, and the last side has a pressed glass form of a glass of root beer with foam on the top and says IT FOAMS. This bottle used a cork.

Hannah COBB brand. This extract was manufactured by Montgomery Ward out of Chicago and Kansas City. Paper label with no other makings on the bottle. I paid $14.00.

Baker Extract Company out of Springfield Mass. Has the company name and location on one side. Says BAKER's INDIAN ROOT BEER EXTRACT on the other side.

John Lecroy & Sons out of Camden NJ.  Has a small corked bottle with no other markings. Lot's of writing on the box, including directions to make 80 glasses of root beer.

Grandma's Country Food.  This is new and can still be bought today.  Search for it and you will find it.  Very good extract and fairly inexpensive. $2.99 for a 4oz bottle. I use this extract to make root beer cookies. The bottle is plastic.

Watkins.  I got this at Walmart.  I do not like it as well as Grandma's. It is very light in color, almost clear, and seems to have a different after taste. I do not recommend this for making cookies.

Hires.  One of many versions of Hires extract bottle.  Two side have the logo and product name. One of the sides says HIRES DIVISION BEVERAGES INTERNATIONAL INC. EVANSTON, ILLINOIS.  The last side says CONTAINS WATER, CARAMEL COLOR, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR.

Hires.  This bottle is clear with no markings except for the word HIRES in pressed glass on the bottom.

Hires. This looks like many of the other extract bottles, but is much more scarce and worth a lot more money. The four sides say:

HIRES IMPROVED ROOT BEER

PHILADELPHIA PA

MAKES FIVE GALLONS OF A DELICIOUS DRINK

MANUFACTURED ONLY BY CHARLES E. HIRES

What makes this one so unique is the word ONLY. All of the rest of the bottles in this style say Manufactured By Charles E. Hires and leave out the word only.

Hires. These are the same as above without the word ONLY.

Hires. The four sides say:

HIRES HOUSEHOLD EXTRACT

PHILADELPHIA PA

MANUFACTURED BY THE CHARLES E. HIRES COMPANY

FOR HOME USE

HIRES.  Four of these are the same as the previous bottles. The one that is second to the left is different.

It says:

HIRES HOUSEHOLD EXTRACT

PHILADELPHIA PA

MANUFACTURED BY THE CHARLES E, HIRES COMPANY

FOR BREWING ROOT BEER AT HOME

That is my collection of root beer extract bottles. There are more than I initially thought. I am sure I am missing several others.  If you are aware of one I do not have, please drop me a note so I know what to start looking for.  Thanks for looking.  tom@floodeen.com